Written by
Kristen Taylor posted on October 13, 2016 12:34
Thousand Island Park celebrated the ground-breaking of the new Guzzle building on September 3, 2016, with hundreds of Thousand Island Park residents and friends, from all corners of the River, gathering to be a part of this symbolic moment, for one of the Park’s most important and cherished amenities. The ground-breaking follows a devastating August 13, 2014 fire that burned the former Guzzle building to the ground and an approximately two-year process of planning for a new structure to replace the beloved, iconic restaurant and ice cream shop. This process of planning for a new Guzzle building has confirmed its historically important place in the Thousand Island Park community.
“In the past, the Guzzle has served as much more than an ice cream and candy shop for our community and we have felt a void without it,” says Chris Heath, Thousand Island Park Corporation President. “Many of us have grown up going to the Guzzle and our rituals there have shaped our River stories. We are very much looking forward to the opening of the new Guzzle building and creating new memories and shared experiences.”
Informal eateries, such as the Guzzle, are often “third places”—spaces that people inhabit most after home and work— that do much more for a community than providing satiation at an affordable price. These places provide a space for fostering real interaction and for finding common ground. They are places where old and new friends may meet, celebrate tradition, and recount happy childhood memories. In the end, these are the places that shape and define a community’s way of life. As Winston Churchill so eloquently stated, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” Thousand Island Park Celebrates a Symbolic Ground-breaking for the New Guzzle in September 2016
“Our goal with the design of the new Guzzle building is to create a space that will recreate what the former Guzzle building provided for the community, while allowing for modern amenities and functionality,” says Guzzle building architect, Jonathan Taylor of Taylored Architecture, PLLC.
The new Guzzle building pays tribute to the most recent Guzzle building, with a corner entrance, high windows, and awnings, and is also architecturally significant to the public structure that was lost in a fire, with the Park’s Columbian Hotel, in 1912. At the same time, it offers improvements such as a larger setback from the road, to allow for more green space and customer safety; an ice cream window, and a wraparound second-story porch.
The new, approximately 7,000 square foot, two-story Guzzle building, is currently under construction. The building will also house a small grocery shop and game room. Local commercial construction company, Con Tech Building Systems, is building the structure.
“A great deal of time and thought, by a hardworking team of people, has been put into the planning for the new Guzzle building,” says Bob Sharlow, Thousand Island Park General Manager. “We are excited about the next era of the Guzzle and seeing all of this hard work come to fruition.”
The Park plans to be scooping ice cream and slinging burgers in the new Guzzle building, by Memorial Day Weekend, 2017. And, ultimately, the new Guzzle building will be offering Thousand Island Park residents and friends of the Park so much more.
By Kristen Taylor
Kristen Taylor lives in Clayton, New York, with her family. She is a co-author of the internationally released book, “For the Love of Food and Yoga”; co-owner of Live Yum and designer at Taylored Architecture PLLC.
